Enigmas of independence

'Freedom and Partition' explores forgotten facets of history and reflects on the complex perspectives surrounding independence celebrations in India

Freedom and Partition: Momentous Events of 14-17 August 1947 in India and Pakistan

Authors: Tan Tai Yong & Gyanesh Kudaisya

Publisher: Primus Books 

Price: Rs 1,095

There is a “prologue” to this review, so to speak. In 2000, the two authors, historians based in Singapore, published their deeply researched, sensitively written, exhaustive and still relevant book, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia, a subject not examined till then with the rigour of academics and lucidity of writing.

That book began with the place of Partition in South Asian histories and moved, in the first chapter, to recounting the arrival of freedom from colonial rule over two days in the subcontinent, August 14-15, 1947.  The major portion of the more than 300-page book was devoted to the making of boundary lines on the territory of British India and princely states and on the psyche of the people, Sikhs and other Punjabis and the Bengalis.

Freedom and Partition is a shorter book, but still manages to be a meticulous elaboration of that first chapter. The principal and single chapter is positioned between an introduction and an epilogue, which briefly informs the reader about the contours of the actual line drawing over land by the Radcliffe Boundary Commission.

The authors trace how the boundary Award was deliberately delayed by Lord Mountbatten despite being ready prior to the two D-Days of August 14-15, causing unprecedented violence in the days preceding them.

In this latest book, the authors look at a more focused slice of the subcontinent’s history at a time when India is navigating a crucial period in its history (as are Pakistan and Bangladesh) and recently celebrated 75 years of independence. The book provides fresh insight into the process of freedom and partition, now a political minefield in India.

 The book opens by juxtaposing the characteristics of celebrations in India and Pakistan of major independence anniversaries — the tenth in 1957, 25th in 1972, 50th in 1997 and 75th in 2022. There are insightful nuggets of information; for instance, reference to an editorial in the Pakistani paper Dawn, which bemoaned in 1957, that ten years after becoming a free state the country was “still incomplete.”

There are several facets of Indian history that are forgotten, and celebrations in 2021-22 sometimes made it appear as though the occasion had never been commemorated and celebrated previously. Readers may have appreciated more detail of celebrations in 1972. These celebrations were marked by a special midnight session of Parliament, with 27 surviving members of the Constituent Assembly present in the Visitors’ Gallery.  One of the high points of the 1972 celebrations was the unveiling of the portrait of B R Ambedkar in the Central Hall, ending allegations that the contributions to the freedom movement of those other than iconic Congress leaders had been neglected. Importantly, Indira Gandhi in her speech conjoined the present and past. Referring to the 1971 military victory, she did not claim it as hers, instead wording it as a military victory of “noble ideas that India cherished all these years.”

The book forces us to think about the history of those four days of celebration, not just as jubilation, which, though essential, did not provide the complete story. Consequent to this approach, the book points to several unsettling facets of the four chosen days. Most significantly, for an “overwhelming number of people” across northern and eastern India (which was “divided”), the “event signified Partition (vibhajan  or batwara) rather than the coming of Independence (azadi).”

The authors detail how three specific groups did not look at August 15 as a day to be flagged as a day for celebration. These were the “Nationalist Muslims”, who chose to stay for being “wedded to the ‘secular’ ideals of the Congress”. The second lot were “extreme Hindu nationalists” for whom the event amounted to the “vivisection of ‘Mother India’.” And last, but possibly the most affected, people in Punjab and Bengal who were “extremely concerned about what their place would be as “minorities” in the new nation-states.” The book provides information and perspective on how these three distinct groups looked at the celebratory plans.

In today’s India, it is particularly important to recall the opinion of V D Savarkar, ideologue of much targeted violence that followed. A day before Independence Day celebrations in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that August 14 would henceforth be celebrated as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”. The decision to observe Pakistan’s Independence Day as one of immense sadness was expectedly criticised by Islamabad and public opinion on both sides of India’s western border — a reaction perhaps elicited. In the era of mass replication of “the leader’s” call, this commemoration has been shaped as an instrument of the rulingregime’s ideology.

The authors are unequivocally of the view that this form of observation makes it “unidimensional”. Instead of August 14, it would have been more apt for the tragedy of Partition to be marked on August 17, the day the Boundary Commission Award was announced. It would also have been more statesman-like to celebrate it as “South Asian Reconciliation Day”. But is reconciliation on the search list?

The reviewer is an NCR-based author and journalist. His latest book is The Demolition and the Verdict: Ayodhya and the Project to Reconfigure India. @NilanjanUdwin